Cell-type specificity of DNA damage response

We are interested in strategies by which different cell types, with different roles in the development in a complex organism, vary in their responses to DNA damage. We study both immediate responses to damage (the decision to arrest the cell cycle, die, or simply repair the damage) and the longer-term developmental consequences of these decisions.

Production of doubled haploids

Much of modern plant breeding depends on the production of inbred, true-breeding lines that are then crossed to produce elite hybrids. Production of doubled haploids (plants derived from a single parental gamete) allows breeders to produce true-breeding lines in a single generation. Using a approach involving the modification of centromeres, originally discovered by Simon Chan and Ravi Maruthachalam, we are developing technogies for the induction of doubled haploids in a wide variety of crops.